Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about the impending wave of cheap Chinese electric cars that may upend the U.S. auto market as we know it. Even Donald Trump waded into the topic recently when he predicted a “bloodbath” for American manufacturing due to an influx of Chinese vehicles. If elected, he said, he’d slap a 100% tariff on Chinese cars. As bombastic and controversial as that statement was, Trump isn’t totally off-base.
A lot of that is thanks to aggressive investments in the EV industry from the Chinese government. “That’s what makes it scary' for car manufacturers, he said. “The game is being played differently.” He said he thinks the Xiaomi SU7, for example, would sell well in Europe or America. The tech giant’s first car starts at under $30,000 in China and advertises a smartphone-like operating system.